Dec. 12th.09 - Florence AZ, past midnight

Had a good day with my ol' father. It started with a tiny flashback to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Loreburn, a place I miss dearly. See, he made waffles and we pretty much only ever had waffles at Grandma and Grandpa's when I was a kid. I kind of love that, that something so common can hold a genuinely special and meaningful memory. Because it started with waffles but Grandpa and Grandma's was also the place we were most constantly awash in extended family, it was the only time we went to the beach, the only time we went fishing, the only time I remember my Grandpa being vital and mobile. After being around him as a child I would never have expected to see someone's body betray them so badly, as it did in his later years. I'll always be afraid of aging because of that. I miss him and I hate myself for ever taking him for granted.

We went for a great round of golf later in the morning and it turned out to be pretty much the most beautiful day ever in all of time. I only played well on maybe a third of the holes, but the actual performance is inconsequential when it comes to golf. For me, anyway.

We had lunch and some mid-day beer at the house and then took a short drive into the country to get some supplies for dinner. The first stop was a family-run pork farm/shop. They raise and butcher their own animals, offering pretty much anything a pig has ever been turned into in their little storefront. We got some pepper bacon and some chops for tomorrow's breakfast and dinner respectively. We also stopped at a very cool olive farm and mill, which is apparently a pretty big deal. They make all sorts of different olive oils, some infused with citrus and garlic and hot peppers and whatnot. I recognize the label; I think they have distribution into Canada, which is pretty cool for an independent farm/company that does everything locally. They also have a variety of crafty things made out of olive wood, fresh-baked artisan breads, a diner with a full menu, and a viewing window where you can see the olives being pressed. You could probably spend a fairly interesting afternoon there taking it all in. We also stopped at San Tan Flats for a beer before heading home. I think they want to come back for dinner before we leave, but it was interesting even just to see. The restaurant side isn't that large, but the bar side is huge and open-air; most of it is outdoors, centered around a dance floor placed directly under the night sky. The only problem was when they opened it was technically illegal to dance outdoors in Arizona. I know that sounds like something you would read in a bullshit email forward, but it's quite true. They got cited and fought it, eventually going to court. The case was thrown out and the law was repealed, I believe. Either way, dancing is now both allowed and encouraged.

I liked our little commerce trip. It seemed kind of like the antithesis of what my cynical Canadian self has come to expect from America, the land where convenience and size are the greatest concerns, where chains and brands rule with an iron fist. To see these family-run businesses doing industrious, multi-faceted work on their own, without name or brand recognition behind them, is always encouraging but somehow more so in this environment. It speaks to what used to be the overriding virtue in the States, back when hard work and desire made anything possible.

Anyway, it was kind of cool to hear my Costo-shopping dad talk about how he feels it's important to go a little bit out of your way once in a while to support the little guy who's doing something unique and wonderful. I don't really remember that being a priority for him at any other point in my life.

I am very sleepy right now, even though I feel like I've been sleeping better than I have in months. I actually nodded off in the car this afternoon while in the midst of a conversation with dad. Travelling through the countryside and seeing all the agricultural work in the region led to some other good chats, the importance of agriculture versus civic development being chief amongst them. Maybe I'll outline that a bit more later.

Dec. 11.09 - near Florence, AZ, midnight

More consumerism and excess today, but only after a little bonding time. After breakfast Dad and I went on a bike ride to literally every corner of both sides of the development. The scope of this goddamn thing keeps surprising me. They put up dozens of homes in a couple of weeks, just an astounding building pace. And it's happening in the middle of nowhere. Retail prices and groceries are at rock-bottm but someone is prepping to make a mint of Sun City Anthem. The community center/gyms/gathering places and parks alone are very daunting and no doubt pricey. The kind of things public money could never even envision, let alone execute.

We stopped at the historical monument at "Casa Grande," both an incredible site and an incredible sight. It's basically the remains of a community, an ancient town built and lived in by the Hohokam, a whole people that seem to have vanished into thin air. Historians suspect some other Native American tribes are descendants but there is no definitive physical evidence to confirm those suspicions.

The ruins at Casa Grande are incredible for so many reasons, the least of which is that some aspect of it has survived this long. It was discovered in the early 1900's, about 500 years after it was likely abandoned by the Hohokam. The centerpiece of the community is the "great house" the name hints at. Lying in the center of the community it stands at least 80 feet tall, constructed more or less out of materials gathered from the desert floor, the rudimentary building products forming a base wall that stands four feet thick and is more or less solid concrete. The building itself is just four degrees from lining up with true north. The building has windows that line up perfectly with the sun and moon during the winter and summer solstices. Another skylight lines up with the moon on some obscure 18 year cycle, a very rare and uncommon part of its rotation apparently. The Hohokam were apparently some kind of astronomers but no one can figure out where that knowledge came from or what the true significance of those events was to them.


The "great house" is the centerpiece of the ruins and the community that once existed around it but a lot of outlying infrastructure also remains and shows the ingenuity they had in planning and forming their home. They even built large "ball courts" as a space for social games and gatherings, shaped like an early version of a hockey rink. There were four or five different designs for outlying buildings, each with its own drainage system for the rainy season. The pots and bowls they constructed were fired by burning mesquite trees and, over time, they grew more and more intricately patterned and decorated.


I dropped $30 on a book about the tribe and the ruins, a collection of essays by archaeologists that worked on the site or studied the Hohokam. Its quite fascinating because this site is really the last vestige of the tribe, the last evidence they even existed. Scientists are really clueless as to what might have happened to them; an entire people just up and disappeared. We know that they abandoned most of their settlements along the Salt River and relocated to the Gila River area and it has been postulated that as their canals dried up they were simply unable to survive the conditions of the desert. But the lack of any kind of concrete history is both troubling and fascinating. They have these sites that people can visit and learn about their history, how they lived and what their lives were like, but the ultimate ending remains a mystery. Even something as simple as their pots and bowls raises more questions than can be answered. There are enough pristine examples preserved by the desert that we know they went through several different styles and practices during different periods, but we don't know what lead them to discover how to create such smoothly finished surfaces and create a functional glaze. When did functionality cease to be their primary concern, giving way to the constantly-evolving and complex decoration and painting? Is there a correlation between the increase in contact with other tribes, the subsequent increase in trading, and the importance of what we would today consider pleasing aesthetics?


Their agricultural prowess is also worth noting. They harvested rivers and tributaries that have since long gone dry for their survival, carving out an incredible series of canals to draw water to their communities for irrigation and a sustainable drinking water supply. This is, of course, done with tools made from stone and bone long before white settlers arrived in the area. The scope of the work is beyond comprehension in a lot of ways.

So it is very compelling stuff, but I have to admit to feeling a bit of guilt about it considering its been years since I did this kind of reading about Canadian First Nations. Probably since University. Whoops. Might have to correct that.


In the interest of keeping a consistent theme we spent most of the rest of the day shopping. Shoes, pants, sweaters, all half or sometimes a third of what I would normally expect them to cost. Apparently people are so desperate to make any sale at all they'll give you a drastically-reduced price on an item that isn't even on sale as long as you tell them you thought it was. So Sarah Mills will get her wish; I will come home with three new pairs of shoes, new work slacks, and hopefully a fresh and healthy new outlook on life to go along with them.

To that end: I don't think I thought about my relationships back home for more than two minutes today. I'm calling that a victory.

Take me to sleep, Legs McNeil and Polar Bear Club.